Keeping the Joy

When I first started writing, it was all about the joy of that first sentence, the joy of a character doing something unexpected.  Now it’s–will my editor like my book?  Will I even get a contract for my next book?  How can I improve my book sales? 

Yes, writing is a business, but for those of us that write fiction do we keep writing because it’s a business?  How do we keep our joy in this crazy business that tries to rob it every day?

I have to speak positive to myself.

I have to tell myself constantly that I love to write, the good and the bad.  The good?  The thrill I feel when my mind flows and my fingers fly across the keyboard.  How excited I feel when I read back some of the stuff I wrote and think, “Man, I’m good!  I can’t believe I wrote that killer paragraph–I rock!    The bad?  When I know I could be doing a better job at marketing myself and my book, but don’t want to toot my own horn, or brag about what I’m doing.  It took me awhile to realize that I have to talk about my book if I want people to read it, something I will definitely take into account my second go ’round. 

So to concentrate on the good and keep my joy when I write I keep telling myself that I’m good at this, that eventually my work will pay off, and even if it doesn’t, I’ll write anyway.  Because I have to.  I can’t go to sleep at night when a story is in my head, I have to get it down on paper.  When I take away all the nonsense in this business, the point is that I love what I do, and I’ll continue to write no matter how much money I make.

So to keep my joy I fill my mind with positive thinking and positive music. These two songs help me keep the joy when the business side of writing has me down.

It’s cheesy I know, but I listen to “The Climb.”  Yes, it’s by Miley Cyrus, (and yes I’m a 30 year old black female, you don’t have to remind me), but the lyrics of this song really keeps me going.  Just listen here.

The other song is “Believe”, by Robin Thicke. He may have been talking about a woman coming back to him, but no matter, I pretend he’s singing about believing in yourself.  When you listen to it, he’ll sing a part about, “When you’re down at the bottom, can you believe?  Can you believe in yourself when no one else does?”

I had all the odds stacked against me to write my first book.  I have no training–I never wrote a thing in my life!  I was a hairstylist for goodness sake, we don’t write! But I loved to read, and I got all the books I could find to train myself how to write.  And here I am, a writer. The last thing everyone expected of me.  But I’m doing it.  I may have just my pinky toe in the publishing door, but I’m in. Soon I’ll be able to walk through, but only if I keep my joy. 

I’ve told you my secrets, now tell me yours, how do you keep your joy?